White Sands.
We are home. After a pleasant drive from Roswell, N.M. to Tucson, we are safe in our home in the desert and it has been a glorious storm chasing experience. There’s much to come over the next week or two. I have dozens of hours of video to go through.
On our way through New Mexico we stopped at White Sands National Park. It was my second time there but my husband’s first time at this famous park. Folks were sledding and sliding like it was piles of snow everywhere, but it was warm and sunny and beautiful. It is truly a spectacular place.
We stopped at the Visitor’s Center on our way in, perused the small museum, and purchased a Camelback water bottle so we’d have extra water on board in the park. It was a smart thing to do.
‘Twas a very nice adventure to bring the vacation week to a close.
Caturday.
Truman and Lucky have always seemed to enjoy relaxing together since Lucky and Jinx moved in over two years ago. While all three of them get along quite well, Truman seems to be more comfortable with spending time with Lucky from time to time.
Mindset.
I have dozens of hours of storm chasing video footage to edit over the next couple of weeks. This moment captures the excitement, energy, and happiness I feel while out chasing storms. Successful chases involve planning, an understanding of weather and science, and a whole lot of luck. I was asked tonight by a guy from Elk City, Okla. if I was an “adrenaline junkie”. Perhaps a bit, but the awe, majesty, and sheer power of Mother Nature is what I find most inspiring. When my time comes and I’m at the Pearly Gates, I want to say “I experienced all I could experience, I used all the gifts you blessed upon me, and I did it with a whole lot of passion”.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Earl arrived in OKC Wednesday night. The plan was I would meet him on Friday, with hopes that the storms took me in that direction.
Mother Nature cooperated with our plan perfectly.
I was so happy to see him when I arrived this morning. We spent the day in Bricktown, having a couple of nice meals, chatting with some locals and other visitors, and just taking it easy together. Bricktown is wonderful; OKC has done a wonderful job in revitalizing what I assume to be a former industrial area. There are a few signs that COVID took its toll on the economy, but the energy seems to continue to move forward. I really like it here.
What a wonderful day. Tomorrow we start the trek back to Tucson.
Altus, Oklahoma.
This is going to be an abbreviated blog entry, as it has been quite a day. I will write more detail of today’s events in the coming days. Suffice it to say, I had my best tornado intercept thus far in my storm chasing career.
This is a large tornado that went through an unpopulated area near Eldorado, Oklahoma.
The twister pulled down a lot of power lines in the area, which made getting out of the storm a bit more tricky than anticipated.
I was in awe today. I also learned a lot today.
Durant, Oklahoma.
Today I drove from Liberty, Missouri to Durant, Oklahoma. I jumped off Interstate 35 at the very first opportunity, as I did not want today to be an “all interstate” day again. It’s not my jam. I ended up driving US Highway 75 for a considerable stretch. I passed through Independence, Kansas, which was one of my target locations on last year’s chase. I also drove through Tulsa. We’ll leave that at that.
Actually, after driving through Omaha and Des Moines yesterday, and then Tulsa today, I’m finding as I get older I’m really preferring the small town vibe that I grew up with versus the bit of hustle and bustle found in today’s U.S. cities.
Storms were moving through these parts in the early afternoon and I knew I had no chance of catching them, so I took my time getting down here and enjoyed the drive. There are more storms forecasted for the overnight. It’s my plan to enjoy them from the comfort of my hotel room.
For supper I drove across the state line to Sherman, Texas, where I tried some local brews at Cellarman’s Pub and Brewery. I don’t know the name of the bartender, but he was kind and talked beer with me. I continued my tradition of a side of local chili with my meal and it was very good.
I had a sample of the Banana Pudding Ale shown on the menu but it wasn’t really my thing. It was good, but I found it too sweet for the moment.
The National Weather Service is predicting a round of storms to go through the area tonight and then I’ll head to the northwest tomorrow to hit the next expected severe storm area.
Liberty, Missouri.
I drove from Colby, Kansas to Des Moines, Iowa via Omaha, Nebraska to chase the storms that made the news this evening. I was very close to the tornado in Stuart, Iowa, but it was rain wrapped and hard to see spot with all the trees and erratic drivers on Interstate 80.
The drivers along Interstate 80 were frankly making exceedingly stupid choices in the inclement weather. It was very common for drivers to just randomly stop in the left hand lane of the freeway, even though there was at least a mile of visibility. This, coupled with the number of trucks driven by folks using their smartphones, made my frustration levels skyrocket and I just decided to get out of there.
There are a number of reasons I dislike chasing storms east of Interstate 35 and north of Interstate 70. There’s too many trees to get good photos, there’s too many hills to see what’s going on, and for some reason the drivers in those parts think they need to be in the left most lane at all times.
I ended up driving down to Osceola, Iowa, where there were several storm cells moving through, but they didn’t get their act together enough to get spinning or anything. The most I witnessed was pea sized hail.
I decided to start heading south for the next area forecasted for severe weather, and that’s the Texarkana area. I knew I was too tired to make it all the way to the next target zone, but Kansas City was manageable. I’m situated for the night in Liberty, Missouri.
Colby, Kansas.
I’m back in Colby, Kansas. Tomorrow’s forecast includes wild weather from Omaha, Nebraska, across Iowa, and well into Wisconsin and Illinois. I’ve set a personal maximum of Des Moines, Iowa. I shall not go further east than Des Moines.
Today I drove from Wichita, Kansas to Brush, Colorado. There were a BUNCH of storm chasers in Northeast Colorado, and this storm had the graciousness of allowing me to get set up and in position to record events.
I ended up chasing the storm along some dirt county roads near Brush, and spotted a small little funnel along the way.
I have plenty of video to put together from the day’s activities, including some nice lightning shots. When I get home on Monday I’m going to be very busy in the video editing bay. I’m concerned about running out of storage space on my external hard drive.
As mentioned earlier, I’m in Colby, Kansas tonight. I was planning on heading toward Omaha via Interstate 80. But most of the hotel options were booked, probably by other storm chasers, for a reasonable distance for tonight, so I opted to get back down to I-70 and grab a hotel along that corridor. There were several vans of storm chasing tours doing the same thing; they stopped in Goodland, Kansas. I went a little further and opted for Colby.
Wichita, Kansas.
So today I drove from Colby, Kansas down to Scott City, Garden City, and Dodge City, as the National Weather Service was predicting a line of storms with very strong winds to pass through this area and march across Kansas.
I noticed a lot of storm chasers opted for northwest Oklahoma, below my target chase area. They intercepted a few tornadoes. I intercepted a lot of wind. The maximum gust I clocked was 79 MPH. I thought the car was going to blow off the road. It didn’t.
There were a bunch of storm chasers in my target area near Meade, Kansas. We all ended up chasing a storm cell along US Highway 160 east to Harper and then up to Wichita. I didn’t spot a tornado but I encountered hail, and at one point I thought I was going to lose the windshield. I did not.
By the time I turned onto K-42 in Harper, the rain was coming down impressively. I practically floated the car around the west side of Wichita before getting settled at a Wingate Hotel near the airport.
Tomorrow I head west, probably toward northwest Kansas/southwest Nebraska. The Nebraska panhandle doesn’t really look to be in the mix, but the northeast corner of Colorado might definitely be in play. I’ll be working with data coming out of Goodland, Kansas.
In the meanwhile, I just ended an excellent dining experience at a place called Sickie’s Garage Burgers and Brews. I didn’t realize they were a chain; they reminded me of Quaker Steak and Lube back east. The bartenders were Pat and Q and they were a hoot.
